My name is Imbabasi Ananias. The Genocide started when I was here in Bugesera in village of Kamabuye, I am 59 years but I was born in Gikongoro. The mistreating of the Tutsis really started a long time ago when they had nicknamed Tutsi several names like Cockroaches, snakes and many more that I have not mentioned up to 1994.

1994 is when they fulfilled their ambitions which they had prepared long time ago, in April 1994 that is when the Genocide started against the Tutsis. I had a wife and children and we were nine (9) with a good number of my family members and with many neighbors. It is not necessary for me to mention all their names. But all of them were murdered.

It was in the evening at a round 9pm when they attacked my house and kicked the door and pulled my wife and children outside asking them where I was. They told them that I was not yet back but in actuality I was behind my house hiding in the sorghum field seeing all of them and they started slaughtering them one by one. Because I was then seen in the sorghum they came to run after me and then started beating me. But I managed to escape although I was so much injured and tried to hide in alot of bushes all around. I then found Alloys Seburikoko and Rutaganira and we decided to go into a big forest so we could walk to Burundi.
I stayed in Burundi not until the R.P.F took over the government and then I decided to come back to Rwanda. After my arrival back in Rwanda, the Government initiated the policy of looking where all the bodies were being thrown so that they can be buried in respectful manner. So we started burning many that were found. I felt like I was losing my mind but God helped me. When April comes every year, especially the week of mourning I always feel very bad because it reminds me of what happened and feel crazy with sadness and anger so I ususually decide to sleep or try to get some thing like beer and then I drink. I only have one son of my elder brother who also survived in Gikongoro but no one else who survived in my family and relatives.

Unity and Reconciliation:
I was the first person to forgive those who killed my family and all my relatives so even those who later asked me to escort them to seek forgiveness or to forgive I was an example to others.This helped some to stay in villages with those who killed their families. So it from that reason that there is much unity and reconciliation among Rwandans we share whatever we have and I always converse with those who killed my families while sharing beer that remember we used not share with you but now see we can now sit together and we share.
GACACA COURTS:
Gacaca courts have solved many cases from the 1994 genocide against Tutsis and once you look around those who were involved in 1994 many were judged and others get involved in reconciliation activities that lead to economic development of the country like constructions of roads and houses. Those who took refuge in the Congo forests and Malawi will have to face Gacaca courts when they come back and they will then be judged.

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One Response to “Imbabasi”

Hello professor Paul conway, I am a youth leader in our community where i live i am aged 29. I was really touched by this blog and all these stories. it was my first time to visit it because i had no idea about it until Gatsinzi Stephen visited us as we were commemorating 18 years after the genocide against the Tutsis. The brilliant man who tried to explain the reasons as to why you decide to iniate this idea and the support you always render to support people who survived and those who tried to rescue others. Please sir i forget to ask steven about his phone number and the office in kigali, so please if you can send them to me because i can take him to other different areas where people tried to rescue others.
Thanks to you as the founder and Steven for his continues visit to different areas in our country.